One of the most successful and popular artists to work in comics, Jim Lee is revered by fans worldwide thanks to his hyper-dynamic artwork and innovative character and costume design.
Now, his work on Batman and Superman — not to mention his legion of WildStorm heroes including WildC.A.T.s, Divine Right and Deathblow — is celebrated in this beautiful hardback, which includes an exclusive interview with Jim Lee, a tour of his studio and hundreds of full-color illustrations and pencils spanning his entire career!
Plus an all-new cover by Lee and an exclusive, all-new eight-page comic strip, written by Paul Levitz ( Legion of Super-Heroes) with art by Lee!

Nice. The books supposed to come out from Titan Books in August, so look out for it. Now, without further delay, here’s Jim Lee’s first design for the cover.

And his final pencils, changing the pose slightly and giving it more relief lighting with an overhead light source.

Now, here are Scott William’s inks, adding texture and hatching to the image.

The fully-colored cover hasn’t been released (or likely, completed) yet, but I’m sure it’s been going to be a hell of production job.

Also, it turns out we only got part of Jim Lee’s statement of assurance that he’ll keep drawing when I reported on it before.  Here’s the complete text...

I wanted to follow the Co-Publisher’s blog with a more personal update of my own creative work. For fans of my art–fear not, drawing comic books is actually a part of my new job description, and I actually plan on increasing the frequency of which you will be seeing my work. It’s important to me not only on a personal level that I continue with a hand in the actual creation of new comics but also for a broader mission.

The mission?

To energize the DCE editorial group through a two-pronged approach. Working with Co-Publisher Dan DiDio and writer/Chief Creative Officer, Geoff Johns, I hope to establish new, exciting directions for the DCU working with the current editorial teams: re-imaging long forgotten, obscure characters, updating classic ones, and introducing yet new ones. That’s the prong from the top down: defining direction and spearheading innovation. Then, down in the trenches, working on actual titles, creating excitement amongst the fans, leading by example from the ground up.

DC would be shortsighted to enlist some of the top talents in the business and keep them from doing their best creative work. So please expect to see renewed productivity in the near future. Oh, and an update on All-Star Batman and Robin after I get to chat with and hear out my collaborator, Frank Miller.

‘Til then, enjoy some of my recent work for the upcoming ICONS: Art of Jim Lee book from Titan Books. Oh, and for the curious, this is NOT the final cover. In fact, I rejected it and decided to redo it (I kept the Trinity composition but changed the angle of the shot and pushed the lighting a lot more).

Best,
Jim

Sounds like Lee’s got ambitions for the company to match the feats of these three superheroes.   I’ll be curious to see what the “update” on ALL-STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN is. How long has that series been running, now?

-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Comics and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia Comics.   Watch out for the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover collection this March - - available for pre-order now on Amazon.com.

I wonder if he even has to try anymore or if drawing a flawless batman,wonder woman, and superman etc. comes as natural as his daily sh*ts

I've never seen Batman in the middle.

Jim Lee=Comic Book Art God

Indeed. Jim Lee = GOD.

I love it

I like how he avoided the anime visual trend. Great attention to detail. 

heres me thinking he just cracks one off over a piece of paper.  
 
but no, seriously that's wonderful, the pencils I mean. I noticed the changes, like Supermans anime look and now, in inks, a more optimistic and Godly stance for all of them. My main issue is with Wonder Woman though, she looks kinda butch. I prefer the smoldering look in Jim Lee's pencils.

I miss the days Jim Lee did the artwork for X-Men. No one did a better Storm and Psylocke then him.

"I've never seen Batman in the middle. "

Excellent work as always. Jim Lee is obviously an incredible artist, but he's also a great family man. I waited in line to meet him awhile back and after he had answered so many questions about , "Who's your favorite character to draw?" and "Will you draw me a Wolverine?" (after he had drawn over 500 of them already) I stepped up and asked him to draw me one of the characters he hasn't drawn a lot of. I then asked him how his family was and what artists his kids liked best. He laughed and thanked me for not asking about his work. (Apparently he was burned out by that point. 
 
So he drew me a Gambit and we talked for a few minutes longer. Great guy and awesome artist. I'll have to post the pic in my gallery soon.

 Though I do not own any comics by Jim Lee, but I have seen his work everywhere on the net and it is amazing. Some work from Image back in the 90's was alright, but in DC HE ROCKS. (Wish he could be the artist for the current Teen Titans comics).

" I've never seen Batman in the middle. "

" I've never seen Batman in the middle. "

"I like how he avoided the anime visual trend. Great attention to detail.  "

I think I would definitely buy that. I grew up with Jim Lee's X-Men and Batman.